DWHJR

Took my parents out fishing yesterday. They wanted to target pike and walleye. In reality they wanted to catch anything because my history of taking them fishing hasn't been the most successful. This was our first time on Conesus lake. Nice day and nice lake. It must get awfully crowded in middle of summer there though. We started out trolling in shallow water 10' and less heading north out of macpherson point. Using little cleos 3/4oz spoons in various colors. My mother caught in first 15 minutes small to medium tiger musky. We though it was going to be a great prosperous day. Things got very very slow. Trolled shore line all the way up to north end of lake. Turned around and trolled in various spots on way back on east side again. Not much happening. Stopped in a few areas to jig. Not much happened there except get a little crispy from the sun. Then I said lets go to middle of lake and troll down center deep water. Lots of bait clouds. Put out two 3 color and two 5 color core lines. Caught 1 average size walleye and 3 large pike in 45 minutes with a few misses mixed in there. kept looping and trolling same spot over 45-50 feet of water. Ironically all hits only occurred when trolling south. All fish were taken on 3 color cores. The 3 pike were taken on same rod on plain michingan stinger no paint just plain. Walleye was taken on watermelon michigan stinger. If i would have confidence that we were going to catch a few more walleye i may have boxed the walleye for a little meal. All fish were successfully released to get big fat and happy for others to enjoy. Dave

Thank you very much for the feedback on this post and the PM's i received. It is greatly appreciated. I will move to lighter leads. That was a very common theme. Also, I should have clarified I am using barrel ball bearing swivels. In fact, I was concerned that maybe that played into my results on Saturday as I used ball bearing swivels on both ends of my leads. I made this change as I had a break off on my dodger fly combo the outing before. I thought perhaps the lack of rotation kinked my wire line on that setup because I did not have a ball bearing at both ends. The ball bearing swivels I am using are large as well. I believe 75# or 80#. Are these too big? After reviewing the feedback. Ironically the fluorocarbon I used on Saturday was Vanish. This is different from my previous outings. I looked at my 2 spools and realized what i had used in the past was a fluorocarbon coated. However, I did catch a few fish in past outings. For Saturdays outing, I used Vanish because it said 100% fluorocarbon. I am curious to the concerns posted about Vanish. Is it a personal preference thing or more than that. I will move to Seagur or other fluorocarbon. Hopefully, I do not have a "hot" boat issue. The boat is new and not running downriggers. Hey anything is possible though. We will check into that if the skunk continues. Sounds like it was a tough bite as well. Erabbit - I really enjoy your posts. I like all the pictures - the fish, your fishing boat rig, and your dog. Seeing your dog makes me think of my Uncle and the fishing memories I had with him. My uncle who has passed on to the fishing paradise in the sky, had a similar dog. Thanks again to all for your assistance. See you on the water. I am hoping to get out fishing Saturday afternoon/evening. Dave

I am totally confused as to my outing yesterday. I took my parents out and was expecting to catch fish. Not a lot but at least a few. Here is the background first. In no way do I think of myself as an expert fisherman. However, I am not new to fishing, nor am I new to fishing Seneca. I am new to “catching fish†on Seneca!! Hopefully, this makes sense!!! I am originally from the Buffalo area. Fished a lot as a kid in Lake Erie drifting and jigging for smallmouth bass and walleye. Also, our family used to go up to Lake Nippissing French River area every summer for 2 weeks and jig for walleye and troll for Northern Pike and Musky. I also have some personal experience up on Lake Ontario catching steelhead and browns during outings. I have been on many charters as well up on Lake Ontario. I moved up to the Seneca lake area just over 4 years ago. Previous to a month ago, I caught only 2 fish on Seneca Lake in 4 years. Yes you are reading that correctly. Also, I have never caught a fish taking my parents out in the last 4 years. Now a big part of that was I was fishing “in the dark†. I was fishing from a large pleasure boat with no electronics, etc. Couldn’t troll down. Basically I knew I did not have the right set up but I still tried to satisfy my fishing urges with what I had. About a month ago, I bought a new boat, a fishing boat, that also fit our family needs for our kids to tube, ski, etc. I have been out weekly and have had some success catching a few lakers each time. A big part of the learning curve is avoiding tangles!!! Over the last few years I have slowly invested in equipment. I have leadcores, dipsys, spoons, flasher and flies, etc. Recently, I invested in 4 wire rods since the purchase of my boat. Also, the boat I bought has very good electronics. Here is Saturday’s 9/27 fishing report Lines were in the water from 1pm to 7pm. Started out trolling from 1pm to 4pm near Valois pt to Peach orchard, full graph many times. Marked lots of fish particularly in 250ft of water give or take, screen showed activity 50’ to 100’ down. Trolled from 4pm to 7pm trolled from Severne to Long Point area. Full graph many times in particular in 150 ft to 230 ft of water. Graph showed fish in 50’ to 100’ range primarily. Weeds and fleas were pretty low in both areas. Fished with 4 wire dipsys, set at different depths covering 50’ to 100’ feet of the water column. Ran 4 wire lines out of flush mounted rod holders that are molded in the boat. One deep rod had Flasher and fly green colored. The other deep rod had white glow with green spoon, I did switch this out a few times as well. Spoons used were NBK, watermelon, white glow with green, purple colors and orange colors up higher. Using 20 lb fluorocarbon as my leaders 6’ to 8’ long. Using mostly green dipseys size 1 with the ring on, tried blue and clear dipseys as well. Using barrel swivels for leaders and connecting to lures. Spoons, all different sizes, mostly stinger sizes. Had wire line out at following and adjusted a throughout the day. 2 rods at 0 SETTING – 150’ to 210’ out. 2 rods at 2.5 setting – 150’ to 210’. Tried different speeds 2.1 to 3.3 sog. A few questions from the group. What am I majorly overlooking? Am I doing something to scare the fish away? Or at the end of the day, was it just the luck of draw and sometimes they don’t bite at all or they were not hitting wire dipseys? But I thought for the time put in we would have at least got one. Even though, we didn’t catch fish it was a beautiful weather day and more importantly an opportunity to spend time with my parents as they are getting older. Any thoughts, suggestions, etc would be greatly appreciated. Don’t worry you will not offend me. Thank you for reading my extended post. Dave

I have sent you a PM with my phone number. I have a few questions to make sure this will work on my boat. Dave